Scotland badminton star Gilmour reveals physical and sexual threats on social media

Scotland's top ranked women’s singles shuttler Kirsty Gilmour opened up on vile online abuse aimed at her, where her tormentors constantly threatened to physically and sexually hurt her.

In a personal piece penned by her for BBC, Gilmour shed some light on the extent of the abuse she had to endure.

“Apparently I’m a mafia, I’m a bi**h, a prostitute. Why? Because I lost a badminton match.

“When that last shuttle hits the floor, I feel like I’ve been physically gut-punched. I debrief with my coach and we agree I couldn’t have done any more. I played great but it just hasn’t gone my way.

“Then I reach for my phone and see a message from an anonymous account. I open it and the usual drivel unfolds. It’s almost formulaic. It starts with a play-by-play of the scoreline, how I just be ashamed of myself, that I’m a terrible player who should just quit,” she wrote.

The world number 25 noted the perpetrators were those who had lost money placing bets on her match, judging by their comments solely on her results and not how she played.

Gilmour, who earned a silver and bronze medal at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, appreciated efforts made by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to combat online abuse.

“The BWF always takes it seriously, even tracking down the IP address of a death threat received by one player, and I sincerely thank them for it. But unfortunately, we haven’t, as a society, managed to come up with any sort of preventative solution to online abuse.”

The 29-year-old suggested a potential Artifical Intelligence (AI) software that can filter out abusive comments in close to real time.

In another sport, French Open organisers this year offered tennis players at the tournament AI protection from social media abuse aiming to filter out abuse comments on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Tiktok, among others.

Players can scan a QR code to connect their social media accounts to the AI technology system, which could analyse every real-time comment in under 200 milliseconds and blocks abusive remarks.

Gilmour concluded by requesting for more protection from online abuse, but admitted for now she would just have to deal with the problem on her own.

“I will just have to stick with blocking keywords and phrases, having thick skin, and laughing off any comments that manage to sneak through,” she added.